Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) is an Italian progressive rock band founded in 1970 which continues to the present day. They were the first Italian group to have success internationally. The group recorded five albums with English lyrics between 1973 and 1977. During this period they entered both the British and American charts. They also had several successful European and American tours, playing at the popular Reading Festival in England and on a very popular national television program in the United States. PFM introduced new sounds, such as the synthesizer, to the Italian musical world. They were also among the first to combine symphonic classical and traditional Italian musical influences in a rock music context. Such innovations and their longevity have earned PFM a place among the most important bands in the Progressive rock genre.

Vega were one of several Andalusian and Spanish bands who flourished in the mid- to late seventies by making music that blended flamenco, folk and jazz at times with English progressive tendencies, often resulting in a colorful and rich fusion sound. Acts like Triana, Cai, Mezquita and Azahar would establish themselves as the preeminent players on these scenes, along with the more contemporary counterparts like Los Canarios and Alameda. In this vein Vega combined Andalusian instrumentation (and sometimes traditional arrangements) with a less well-defined progressive bent, emphasizing instead a heavy flamenco influence and the showcased guitar work of band leader Tómas Vega. The group released three albums in three years, each accompanied by one single. The first two are heavily imbued with flamenco-driven fusion compositions.

Three classic albums: The World Starts Tonight (1977), Natural Force (1978) and Goodbye to the Island (1981).
Recognized for her distinctly raspy voice and soulful pop repertoire, Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler had her first worldwide hit in 1978 with "It's a Heartache" from her second album, Natural Force. Characteristic of her work in the '70s, it blended elements of country, rock, and pop.

"Sweet Honey Wine" lives up to its title, it begins cool and melodic and makes you wish you were sipping piña coladas on an island. "I Need Your Love" opens softly before revving up, only to be drop kicked by a wimpish male vocal. Smith achieves a Latin feel on "What's Done Is Done," but once again an insipid vocal and weak lyrics render it unplayable; a shame because there's a striking guitar solo. Lonnie gets back on track with "Do It" - it isn't jazz, but it's a decent groove underscored by an incessant rhythm guitar and a spirited organ solo. "Journey to Within" is like the title implies, dark and moody, music to stroll graveyards by. You would expect a three-headed monster to jump out your speaker. It settles into a sweet petulant groove spearheaded by a tenor sax solo and Smith's deep, spacey keyboarding on the black keys. The last cut, "My Latin Sky," is light and bouncy, and the most traditional jazz offering.

In their early years, Kaipa was one of Sweden's best Symphonic Prog bands. Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings was a member of Kaipa. Their albums contain mostly instrumental music, drawing its influences from classic progressive Rock bands (Camel, Yes, Genesis), Classical music (Bach), and also Swedish Folk music. The Decca Years is a compilation of the three first albums from Kaipa, released under the Decca label during the years of 1975 to 1978. It also includes a demo which was previously unreleased, and a previously unreleased live set.

Pieces of Eight is the eighth studio album by Styx, released on September 1, 1978. Like the band's previous album, The Grand Illusion (1977), it managed to achieve triple platinum certification, thanks to the hit singles "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" and "Renegade". The band members produced and recorded the album (like their previous three efforts) at Paragon Studios in Chicago with recording engineer Barry Mraz and mixing engineer Rob Kingsland. "I'm O.K." was recorded at Paragon and St. James Cathedral. This would be the last album to be produced at Paragon Studios.

This was the first TD album to incorporate lyrics and vocals (from Steve Jolliffe, who also contributed wind instruments and keyboards). By this point, the nucleus of the band was down to Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke, with the sound centering more on shifting arpeggiation over percussive rhythm structures, with "Madrigal Meridian" being an impressive example of this. Jolliffe's vocal contributions on "Bent Cold Sidewalk" and "Rising Runner Missed by Endless Sender" provide an aggressive edge that effectively catapults the listener from the hypnotic pulse that Tangerine Dream are best known for - still, it's by no means a failed experiment, though it does make Cyclone one of the least useful TD albums for working up a good meditative state.

Cathedral is usually mentioned with other 70s American prog bands like Yezda Urfa and Mirthrandir. Those three bands played symphonic-prog influenced mostly by Yes and early Genesis (although Yezda Urfa showed a strong Gentle Giant influence). And it had a profound influence on Cathedral. The listener will instantly notice that Cathedral were quite aggressive for a mid-seventies prog band, and the band wastes little time exploring action-packed sections in each track. The bass/drum interplay was one of the first things to catch my attention. Not only does the bassist and drummer lock into complex and aggressive grooves, but the drummer was also allowed to fill most of the tracks with additional percussive instruments. The guitarist is the next musician to stand out. Try to imagine Robert Fripp as an American guitar player…

Pyramid is the third album by progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released in 1978. It is a concept album centred on the pyramids of Giza. At the time the album was conceived, interest in pyramid power and Tutankhamun was widespread in the US and the UK. Pyramid was nominated for the 1978 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

Released just as punk was taking hold on the public's imagination in America and making groups like Jethro Tull seem like dinosaurs on their way to extinction, Bursting Out became a seemingly perpetual denizen of the cutout bins for years afterward. However, it happened to be a good album, a more-than-decent capturing of a live Tull concert from Europe. The sound is remarkably good, given the group's arena rock status at the time, and the repertoire is a solid representation of the group's history, going all the way back to "A New Day Yesterday" from their second album and up through 1978's Heavy Horses, with stops along the way for "Bouree," "Aqualung," "Locomotive Breath," "Cross-Eyed Mary," and a compact reprise of Thick as a Brick. Some of these tracks work better than others – the tendency here is to play loud and hard, and sometimes that just doesn't translate well on record; seeing "Locomotive Breath" probably worked better than hearing it.

Few female singers matched the hard-swinging Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and skill in all areas of jazz vocals: her splendid improvising, wide range, dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her one of the most enjoyable singer of the age. O'Day's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading with Roy Eldridge on the Gene Krupa recording "Let Me Off Uptown." After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s, she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era for Verve during the 1950s and '60s. Though hampered during her peak period by heavy drinking and, later, drug addiction, she made a comeback and continued singing into the new millennium.